Afterword - Book 1 - Chapter 18 (Patreon)

Chapter 18: Adventurer III

(original chapter title: Adventurer II)

I love this chapter. I also HATE this chapter. I've revised it and read it entirely too many times as [Reflections of Reality] evolved (aka got nerfed).

It's a powerful chapter though, a display of both supreme competence and more than a few mistakes from Ranthia. It's a glimpse of what she could be, but it was a CLOSE call for her. It always had been, but every revision cut it a bit more closely. It's MEANT to be a fight that could have killed her, a victory that took intense skill AND solid luck.

It also ended up disgustingly long after the latest revision, but I didn't want to chop off the aftermath stuff into its own chapter. That would have made for a short and boring chapter. It's time to end the Sardonia arc. It's time to get her to Ariminum.

The flow of the battle changed a lot from the original chapter (even the order she fought the goblins in changed), but the chapter's still a close cousin to the original. An epic battle, followed by her debriefing with the Guildmaster, followed by her preparations to leave. The main beats are all there, but (imo) the flow's a lot better now. Superior writing experience pays off!

[Divine-Touched Identify] is one of those 'scary' things I constantly considered removing when I revised this chapter. Unfortunately, the skill's kind of foundational. I've tried not to make Ranthia too 'special', but the few places she's defied the norms have proven... contentious, to say the least. She's still god-touched though, and arguably in a way with more impact than Elaine's "I have some knowledge from a scientific society" own god-touching. Ranthia may occasionally feel like she's not the main character in her own story, but she is. She always will be.